David Hartstein’s film about Kinky Friedman’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign, Along Came Kinky . . . Texas Jewboy for Governor, opens the only way it could have: Friedman lights his ubiquitous cigar and says, “Blessed is the match that kindles the flame. That’s what I hope this campaign was all about.”

Premiering at the SXSW Film Conference and Festival, in Austin, Hartstein’s documentary follows Kinky from Alpine to Zavala, gathering supporters and luring independent voters, all the while fighting a losing battle against the party machine. As expected, the film brims with Kinky’s trademark non sequiturs and stump speeches, equal parts politics and stand-up.

But what surprises most is Kinky’s earnest sincerity, a quality thus far obscured by his larger-than-life persona (his campaign posters, with phrases like “Kinky for Governor: Why the Hell Not?” probably didn’t help either). But watching him trek across the state campaigning, you believe in his vision of an honest, straight-talking government—even when talk of hope is followed by footage of him singing “I’m proud to be an asshole/from El Paso.”

Kinky was the first independent candidate on the ballot since Sam Houston in 1859. Even though we already know how the story ends, with Kinky finishing last in the election with only 12 percent of the vote, the film is a pleasure to watch for several reasons, not least of which is Hartstein’s knack for being at the right place at the right time.

“I just showed up with a camera,” Hartstein said to a packed crowd at the Paramount Theatre. “I was a persistent son of a bitch.” He got surprisingly broad access to the Chris Bell and Carole Keeton Strayhorn campaigns (only Rick Perry ignored his requests), and the film drips with candid, almost uncomfortable moments. At Strayhorn’s press conference announcing her candidacy as an independent candidate for governor, she squirms when quizzed by reporters, giving the same stock answer to four different questions. Governor Kinky doesn’t seem the slightest bit ridiculous when the film shows Perry’s bombastic campaign commercial, straight out of “The West Wing: Texas Style,” where he winks into the camera, state flag rippling behind him.

Much of the film depicts the grassroots campaign to get Kinky on the ballot, which required 45,540 signatures. Kinky secured 169,574 signatures (every single one of Texas’s 254 counties was represented). The press took notice, and he was starting to look like a serious candidate. Footage of Bell’s and Strayhorn’s campaign strategists show they were more than a little worried about Kinky’s traction in the state, if only for the fact that he might siphon off a sizable number of independent voters.

Kinky was, after all, the only candidate who could market his own personality to raise money. He declined contributions from lobbyists, selling T-shirts, bumper stickers, and Kinky action figures instead. Poll numbers are interspersed with the footage and showed Kinky leading Bell 19 percent to 13 percent in July 2006.

It didn’t last. A few rusty press conferences and debates exposed Kinky’s policy shortcomings, and a couple of off-color remarks garnered him negative press. After the televised gubernatorial debate, Kinky told his staff that he brought his “C” game. The polls began to turn against him, and Bell’s numbers grew. Perry went on to win the election with a paltry 39 percent of the vote.

The loudest applause came at the end of the film, when “Kinky vows to run again in 2010” flashed across the screen. Clad in his trademark black coat and cowboy hat, cigar in hand, Friedman appeared on stage for a Q&A after the show and echoed that sentiment: “I think Texans appreciate someone who’s been knocked down and gets back up to fight.”

Then he dropped a bit of a bombshell. Kinky announced he’d likely run as the Democratic candidate for governor. “Democrats plus independents equal victory,” he explained. “That’s the lesson we learned.” His viability as a candidate aside, Kinky’s inclination to cozy up to the Democratic party is a significant departure from the man in the film, who adamantly declared that “money doesn’t vote; people do.” Along Came Kinky could well serve as the last glimpse of the 2006 Kinky, a man who may not surface in Texas politics again.

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